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My body tenses and I sit up abruptly a knife in my hand to ward of danger.  I am breathing heavily and all my senses are alert for any sign of the terror I am sure must be lurking in the dark but there is nothing.  No fire, no blood, no screaming…only the silence of the cool winter night and the endless stretch of barren land.

I slowly lower my knife and, after looking around once more, slide the blade into its sheath at my belt.  I draw my cloak closer around my shoulders; the night is hardly cold but I am shivering regardless.  The images are always the same.

The past and the future, history and the unwritten, memories and illusions; it is all the same.  It is simply my misfortune to be in the middle as a victim of prophecy and my heritage.

I am a Walker, the last of what was once a prominent clan of people favored by the great Water Goddess.  With her blessing, I Walk the flow of time into the past but am always bound here to the present.  It is not an existence I wish would on anyone in this time of peril and it is an existence I often find myself cursing though I would not do so if the prophets had left well enough alone.

Prophets fall into three schools.  One school of thought believes that subjects of prophecy should be left blissfully unaware of their destiny.  They say that he or she must perform what prophecy demands without thoughts of duty or the desire to escape.  If they know of their fate then they may try to change their actions and inadvertently cause the world immense harm.  These people are often well versed in prophecies and secretive but relatively harmless.

Another school teaches that the subjects of prophecies should be “guided”.  In reality these people are little better than slavers.  They scour the world for any who may relate to the prophecies they know and steal them away from their homes.  The captives are indoctrinated to their ways till they are mindless fanatics who believe as their captors do – the people prophecy identifies have no right to be free.

A final school believes that no subject of prophecy deserves to live.  These are often the ones in positions of power who have been prophesied against.  To hold their power they take the lives of anyone related to a prophecy and, quite often, the lives of those who are not.

And that is the cause of my grief.

An obscure vision gave Him reason enough to make his slave and an unclear whisper gave Him reason enough to annihilate my entire clan.

Had she but allowed me to die thirty two years ago it all could have been avoided.